SUNDAY MORNING NOW: Minus Media Reviews for New Ringling, UK Critic Takes a Deep Dive into You Tubes, and Finds It "The Greatest Circus on Earth"

A friend to this blog, London-based entertainment reporter and critic Douglas McPherson covers circus among other topics for a number of publications, including The Stage and The Daily Mail. He is as perplexed as I by the lack of media reviews for the new Greatest Show on Earth, so he took it upon himself to watch a number of You Tubes out there of the complete performance of the show, and he loves what he sees, with minor reservations.  Here is a link to the notice he posted on his blog:

  https://circusmania.blogspot.com/2023/11/still-greatest-show-on-earth-review-of.html

THE KID HAS CHARISMA  

In a followup e-mail I sent to Douglas, asking him what he thought of the music,  he responded, and added a few more thoughts on the show:

'The music, I thought, was well suited to the mood of each act. Apart from the theme song, I didn't notice it too much, but that probably only means that it was not distracting from the action. An act I didn't mention in the review by the way but I maybe ought to add in was a springboard act, which went very high. On the subject of Wesley (Williams), I've just reviewed a UK show on the blog called Planet Circus and I was talking about how only a very few circus performers seem to put their personalities into an act and connect with the audience as individuals. But I noticed that Wesley really does do that. Especially in the ensemble numbers or where he's giving background support to another act, he really makes an effort to engage the audience and put his enthusiasm across. He definitely has charisma."

 

This is most interesting.  It suggests that Wesley may be giving the performance a more intimately human quality.

WAITING TO SEE IT LIVE

I have resisted watching You Tubes of the full show because I would rather see it ideally in person, when it gets out here next year, if it does.  Which is why I am glad I made the effort recently to take in a live performance of Zoppe Family Circus, reviewed a few posts down.  I am sure I felt a more emotional connection to the show, being there, than I would have felt in front of a flat screen.